The Levels of Stage Hypnosis
Posted on 27. Nov, 2010 by Jason Gold in Hypnosis
When I first developed my ability to use hypnosis, a very well known hypnotist told me that only 1 person in ten could be hypnotized to somnambulistic depth of trance. Therefore if I was playing a room of 100 people, this meant that only 10 people could be hypnotized to take part in the show and even at that there were no guarantees that those 10 people would actually opt to take part. This was a scary concept, especially for someone starting out.
The hypnotist who told me this was – as I said, ‘very well known and respected’ so I took his words to heart. Suddenly, my results went downhill and I couldn’t get as many people ‘under’ as I was used to. I began to lose confidence in my abilities as a result and even considered cancelling some of the shows I was doing due to fear. Eventually, my fiancé reminded me of some of the shows I’d been doing up until I had spoken to this other hypnotist and the confidence I’d had whilst doing them. She was right to give me a hard time. When I looked back, I remembered some of the pubs I’d performed in at the beginning and how they’d turned out………
On one occasion, I went into a public house in a ‘less than desirable’ area, and performed to a crowd of only 30 people, 28 of whom were around 50+ in age and didn’t want to take part. I attempted to convince people to join the fun and eventually managed to drag 4 people up. If I’d had the notion in my head that only 1 in ten could be hypnotized on stage successfully then at this point I would have folded, lost confidence, and that lack of confidence would have come across to my volunteers therefore thwarting my ability to hypnotize them. The volunteer must have absolute belief in your abilities as a hypnotist.
So I confidently and brashly jumped in and carried out an induction that took no longer than 6 minutes (and that was including the handlock suggestibility test). 2 of the 4 were deep down in somnambulistic trance, the other 2 hadn’t gone under. I carried on with the show and had an excellent night.
After my fiancé knocking some sense into me I met with another well-known hypnotist who told me that almost everyone he tried it on went straight into trance, and if he had 15 people on stage he knew he would always lose around 3 of them, but the rest would remain a part of the show, deeply under his control.
I preferred this belief to that of the other hypnotist, so decided to adopt it. The question is – who was right? The first hypnotist who believed that 1 in 10 people were the limits? Or the second hypnotist who believed that everyone he tried it on would go into trance? The fact is that neither of them were right or wrong but their belief in the outcome made what they were thinking and feeling into their personal reality.
If you think now about Roger Bannister, the first person to officially run the 4 minute mile. Since the time of ancient Greeks, nobody on the face of the planet could do this – until Bannister broke through and proved it possible. It was apparently scientifically impossible, but Bannister had his own secrets to success – belief in himself and what he was capable of, and nothing was going to get in the way of that.
Several weeks after Bannister broke this record, someone else performed the same feat, and a few weeks later even more people began breaking the four minute mile. Nowadays, we have college and high school athletes achieving this on a daily basis. So was it possible for this to be done before Bannister proved it so? Of course it was, but nobody believed it to be therefore this created their reality. Once people knew it to be possible they began believing that perhaps they could do the same.
I firmly believe that we create our own results in Stage Hypnosis based on our self belief and confidence in our abilities, just as we do in life.
“People usually get what they believe” – Ormond McGill
Whether in a house, in a pub or club, or in a theatre, it doesn’t matter where you are – there will always be various levels of trance in your volunteers.
